Following last year’s treacherous race at Jerez the riders clearly felt that having an intermediate tyre would have been beneficial.

On a drying track the wet tyre simply destroys itself due to a dramatic build-up of heat and the tyre starts to lose grip rapidly creating a very dangerous set of circumstances for the riders.

Casey Stoner spoke of how, “We used to get a lot of movement out of them but they didn’t destroy themselves. These days we don’t get half as much movement but now they just destroy themselves.”

In their previous construction Stoner also felt that the wet tyre was more durable than it is at present.

Speaking after taking the 46th pole position of his career Jorge Lorenzo commented that, “It [the reintroduction of intermediates] was something that we discussed yesterday in the safety commission. I asked to Loris [Capirossi] and Carmelo [Ezpeleta] and the people from Bridgestone and they said that the philosophy of Bridgestone is not to have them.”

Second on the grid Dani Pedrosa also called for the reintroduction of the intermediate tyres, the Spaniard saying, “On the wets after three or four laps it was hard. Intermediate probably would help but as Jorge said it isn’t going to happen.”

With former grand prix rider Capirossi brought onto the safety commission this year in a bid to have riders’ voices heard, it is perhaps interesting that this request has been rejected so quickly.